Wissenskulturen, Wissensgeschichte, und historische Epistemologie

Abstract

The term culture of knowledge has become a commonplace today and is circulating with a confusing diversity of meanings throughout various disciplines and fields, like Cultural Studies, Science Studies, History of Science, Epistemology, Sociology and History of Knowledge. This paper investigates the origins of the term culture of knowledge and discusses its various meanings, applications, and misconceptions in Cultural Theory, History of Science, Historical Epistemology and History of Knowledge. Finally, Ludwik Fleck’s theory of thought-styles is proposed as an ideal model for describing specific cultures of knowledge.

Keywords

• Cultures of Knowledge
• Epistemic Contextualism
• Social Epistemology
• Relativism
• History and Philosophy of Science
• Ludwik Fleck